John’s Blog

RIP Snowy

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 08:03:56 +1000

Life on a farm involves death. Things die. That’s a fact of life.

The realty is that some of those things are our pets and we love them.

Today I buried Snowy, beloved white chook, excellent layer and just all round nice chicken.

Did Google do something wrong?

Fri, 9 Jul 2010 18:26:27 +1000

Google is in trouble for capturing “private data” with its StreetView cameras. But this time the data is not photos of people in compromising poses, its wifi packets.

Google stands accused of capturing people’s passwords, banking data, email and other truly personal stuff.

As the Google cars speed along photographing the streets, they sniff for wifi access points, a bit like kids “war driving”. The wifi data is analysed and the header reveals the name of the access point and its unique serial number (MAC address). Google married this with GPS data from the car and produced a database that is used for non-GPS devices to do location based things. So your laptop can use Google maps and know roughly where it is because it can triangulate wifi base stations.

Other companies do this. It is not new, its useful.

The header information (of the wifi packets) is not encrypted. It is broadcast so your laptop knows which wifi it can connect to.

But Google also stored the “payload” or data part of the packet. The software they used just did that. They didn’t write it, they downloaded it from the Internet and used it, it was open source and meant for people to use freely like that.

Google didn’t use the data. There is no evidence they even looked at it. For 60% of wifi that data was encrypted and useless anyway. But for 40%, it was “open” or not encrypted. So Google could have read it. Anyone could have read it, all they needed to do was turn on their laptop and there it was.These base stations were (and are) broadcasting data for anyone to see.

And for this Google is being crucified.

Any IT aware person would agree, I believe, that Google did not set out to harm anyone, did not harm anyone and has at all times acted responsibly. But the debate isn’t being run by reasonable people, its being run by lawyers and opportunists out to get rich by suing one of the biggest companies in the world.

They forgot Google’s company mission statement “Don’t be evil.”

Here’s one reporting of the story.

And more comment here.

Photo by this kind person. (Copyright © 2004-2010. Published under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 (Canada) license)

More email etiquette

Thu, 8 Jul 2010 15:21:16 +1000

It seems there are always new and exciting ways people can annoy the heck out of you using email. The capacity for human stupidity is boundless.

In my previous articles, I have shown some of the “rules” around email. In my REIT talk, I go in depth into human communication and demonstrate exactly how limited email is as a form of communication.

But email is (as Merlin Mann points out) often a metaphor for other things going on in your life. If he ever finishes his book (“Inbox Zero”), I’m sure it will be a best seller. The world, especially the business world, is crying out for someone to show us the light, the way it should work.

During the meanwhilst, it is left to lesser mortals such as myself to offer up small tips and tricks, while we await the great answer.

Lifehacker is one of those sites. “X many ways to do Y” where X is a prime number. A little formulaic but effective none the less.

Here is the article.

Here’s another.

Crappy customer service

Sat, 3 Jul 2010 18:02:03 +1000

I’m possibly hyper-sensitive to bad customer service.

I went to Dymocks in CentrePoint today to buy Amber McArthur’s new book - Power Friending. I browsed for a while but couldn’t see it so I decided to ask.

Both the staff were busy with a woman who wanted to find the sushi place. Hardly Dymocks business and why the frack did it take two of them to tell her? But I waited patiently.

Finally my turn and the bitch served another customer who had obviously come to the counter after me. FAIL.

Maybe its my Scorpio, maybe I’m just crazy, but I can’t let this go. Hence the blog post.

I try to provide good service in our business. Sometimes we fail, I confess. But I’m aware of it and I try to keep the staff on track. I really do. I wouldn’t put up with this crap, I really wouldn’t.

Stay away from Dymocks - they suck.

Vanuatu

Mon, 31 May 2010 11:36:20 +1000

The guide books will tell you the facts, Vanuatu is a group of 83 islands, it's about 4 hours flight from Sydney to Port Vila, the capital. The locals speak English, French and Bislama (Pidgin) and the currency is about 85 Vatu to the Aussie dollar. I'm told it's very like Fiji, but I've never been to Fiji.

For a family friendly holiday, it's perfect. The resort we stayed at was recommended to us and we would certainly recommend it to you - Le Lagon.

Le Lagon has great facilities - pools, bars, restaurants, buffet breakfast and dinner, water sports (kayaks, canoes, sailboards, catamaran, scuba and snorkels), a gym, golf, bikes and lots more. But most importantly it has a Kid's Club. And a darn good one. The local people love kids. There are kid's activities for young ones (2-5) and older ones. They'll take them swimming, walking, tours, shopping, feed them etc. If you want a day off from the kids, the only guilt will be in your head, they'll have a ball. Baby sitters are embarrassingly cheap if you want a night out.

It is very easy to get around. Taxis are fairly priced but variable ($10-$20 per trip, no meter, just what the driver thinks), hire cars are pointless but Public Transport is ridiculously cheap and works just like taxis. You hail one, tell them where you want to go and they take you there for about $2 in our money. Tours and excursions are all reasonably priced.

There is no tipping or bargaining which works well for Aussies who aren't used to those practices anyway. Some shops will give you 100:1 on the dollar but their prices were higher. Its just best to get local currency and work with that. There are ANZ and Westpac ATMs all over, plus branches and money changers, it really isn't a problem although the resort charges 3% on credit cards.

To say the natives are friendly is an understatement. Everyone waves, cars toot and people say Hello. As most speak at least 3 languages, communication is easy. A lot of the shops are owned by Chinese immigrants, there's a huge Aussie presence, French, English, Kiwis. I didn't meet any Indians.

Food is variable. Don't go expecting gourmet experiences. We didn't find many. The local beef is excellent, the seafood good and you'll find French, Chinese and lots of other cuisine to try. There is Kava everywhere. We tried it, tastes like mud, makes your lips numb and that was all. Not sure if that was a joke on the white man or just an acquired taste. The local beer is excellent however.

My highlight was the volcano. This is on another island and the tour including air fare etc was about $500 per person, but the experience was brilliant. Light plane to Tanna (1.5 hours), bloody rugged, rough and bumpy 4WD to the volcano (3.5 hours) and a walk around the rim. A very full on day trip, if you can afford the overnight stop you get to see the volcano at night which is better they tell me, although that track scared the crap out of me in broad daylight, I'm not sure I would be up to it at night. I sat in the vehicle with 3 others, 4 people had to ride in the tray, I'm not sure how they did it. The driver was amazing.

There are allegedly no sharks, no poisonous snakes or other nasties. No stingers in the water. We put Connor in a swim vest as he is not quite a swimmer yet. He played in the pools, invented a game he calls "Buzz Lightyear" which involves yelling "To infinity and beyond" and leaping into the pool. Regrettably it caught on like wildfire amongst the kids. If you want to go sans children, there are resorts that don't take kids for a more adult vacation.

Vanuatu is a great place for Aussies to holiday. Very safe, easy and offers touristy things at the resorts or get amongst the locals and learn heaps. Their off season is our Winter and the temperatures are hot, the water good and the resorts lightly booked - how perfect is that?

Highly Recommended.

11 Essential Windows Programs

Sun, 2 May 2010 09:06:43 +1000

Here is my list;

Adobe Reader.
Out of the box, Windows can’t open PDF’s. Adobe Reader is free but it’s also a major target for hackers. You simply must keep it updated or you could get infected simply by opening a dud PDF file. Turn off the options “Javascript in PDF” and “open third party programs” to minimise your exposure or get FoxIt instead. Free.

Java.
Many programs require this add-on from Sun. Keep it up to date. Free.

Flash Player.
A lot of web sites require Flash. Free.

PDF Creator
You can buy Adobe Acrobat for around a thousand bucks or get this free application. Tough choice. Free.

Firefox
Windows comes free with Internet Explorer, the biggest invitation to viruses on the planet. That little blue “e” icon is bad news. Avoid at all costs. Every other browser is better. Firefox is an excellent starting place and its free.

BGInfo.
If you like geeky stuff, this puts it on your desktop wallpaper. Windows version, memory, service pack level and lots of other useful information. Free.

VLC Media player.
Plays just about anything. Free

AnyDVD.
Removes region coding and copy protection from DVDs. Paid

DVD Shrink.
Squashes 9Gb DVDs onto 4Gb DVD blanks. Free

Roxio Creator.
That DVD and CD burning problem – solved the Windows way. Burns, copies and handles ISO files. One stop program for all your burning needs. Paid.

Microsoft Office.
If you want to actually get anything done with your PC, you’ll need Office. You could try Open Office (free) but most people gravitate to MS Office. Paid.

What you DO NOT need;

Anti Virus 2010 Pro.
Any anti virus offered as a popup window is most likely bad, bad, bad. There are heaps of scams, avoid. Especially any pop up that asks for money! Get MSE or Trend or Kaspersky and nothing else!

How to podcast

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 13:44:00 +1100

I said I would follow up with an article on the “how” of podcasting, here are a few pointers to get you started.

The first step is to start listening to lots of podcasts. Take in a wide range and hear what other people are doing. You will soon develop a taste for what you do want to do and what you don't want to do. I would suggest sampling something from the TWIT network and something from the Lifestyle podnetwork. Then I'd suggest a dash of Quick and Dirty Tips, some Chillcast and round it out with Manager Tools. Although none of these may be about the topic that grabs your passion, they represent a wide spectrum of good quality podcasts. You'll certainly hear what can be done.

Next you need to plan. Know your audience, your message and exactly what you want to say and do. Will you be a one person talk show? That is probably the hardest style. Two or more people make things easier and the conversations seems to flow more easily. Will you be recording live in a studio of some sort or over the phone? Skype is a fantastic tool for multi-person podcasts where you are all in your own homes. Skype provides the teleconference style call, generally free no matter where you are. So if your co-hosts are in other countries or just in another town, Skype makes it easy.

I know I'm an Apple fan-boy but honestly the Mac is an incredible platform for podcasting. If you were going to do a podcast for your business or your hobby and you have a Windows PC, you should seriously consider buying a Mac to do the podcast. You'll get nearly everything you need (other than the mic) built in. And the software is very easy to use.

Yes, you can (and people do) record podcasts on Windows. There is software and it does work. But the more I hear Windows users discussing podcasting, the happier I am that I have a Mac.

Then you need some gear. Your choices will be driven to some extent by your planning decisions. Spend most of your money on the microphone and interface (sound box, mixer) and you are on the right track. A Shure PG48 and a Micport Pro will set you up for a really professional sound or there are hundreds of other options depending on your budget. I use a Plantronics headset which is fine.

At this point I suggest you check out The Podcasters Emporium which is an excellent podcast designed to tell you all about this stuff.

The process (work flow) goes something like this;
1. Plan episode
2. Book guests, hosts etc
3. Test gear before hand
4. Record show
5. Edit show, trimming, mixing and adding music etc
6. Save show with appropriate MP3 tags
7. Test listen
8. Publish to web site
9. Make RSS feed
10. Publish to iTunes and other podcast directories
11. Monitor feedback from audience
12. Do it all over again, its fun!

Now this may seem like a lot of work and it is. My Mac does steps 3-10 all in one program and takes all the technical tinkering out of my way. I plug in my headset, hit record and away I go. When I want to publish, I hit “publish” and that’s all. I don't need to know about RSS and the likes, Garage Band does it all for me.

Hopefully I haven't put you off. It really is a lot easier to do than describe. Go have a try.

Blogger’s rights

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 13:07:31 +1100

There was a bit of a stink recently over bloggers reviewing restaurants. Rita published some negative feedback from one of her readers about a particular establishment. And next it was all chefs vs bloggers and one stupid prat photographed brandishing a knife as if he was going to take to anyone who dared nay say his eatery. Storm in a teacup maybe but it brings up the subject of bloggers rights.

What freedoms do we really have? Can you blog about a bad night out? Can you get sued because of it?

I once had a fancy to start a web site called telstrasucks.com and my solicitor had kittens. 6 little fluffy ones. Needles to say I piked out on the web site. But it hasn't stopped me blogging about bad telcos or bad technology. I do feel qualified to do that. With 25+ years in the IT industry and many exams under my belt and not being in the sales game, I think I can spot a bad computer or a low value broadband plan. But what right do I have?

Many years ago in public radio I recall being taught (by a free lawyer) that the only defence for libel was truth AND public benefit. You had to prove both. Now I'm not a lawyer and I have no idea how true or not that advice is. Perhaps one of our qualified lawyer readers could write something on the subject?

update (28/3/2010): Read this article on the subject.

Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE)

Mon, 8 Mar 2010 08:15:10 +1100

This is a relatively new product from Microsoft. By all accounts, it’s a very capable anti-virus and it is certainly less of a drain on your computer than the over bloated Internet Security offerings from people like Norton or Trend. And it will save you around sixty bucks a year because you can stop paying for anti-virus.

You do need to have a genuine copy of Windows. MSE will not install until you have passed “Windows Genuine Advantage”. Since all (windows based) computers should have shipped with a licence for Windows, usually a sticker on the case, you should not be afraid of this.

Prior to installing, remove any other anti-virus software you have. Uninstall Norton, Trend, AVG or whatever else you have. Reboot and you’re ready to go.

Installation is easy. Just go to the Microsoft web site (see below) and click “Download Now”. Oh, use Internet Explorer for the download. It only takes a few minutes. I found it very easy. Make sure you only get MSE by visiting the Microsoft web site, there are fakes out there, usually in the email or pop-ups on other web sites.

In practical use I found MSE worked as well as anything I’ve used before. I didn’t seem to slow the computer down noticeably. I even use it on my netbook which has a tiny processor and I didn’t notice any slow down at all. In fact if you have Norton and you remove it and switch to MSE, not only will you save money, you’ll probably notice your computer speeds UP.

I know I’ve been hard on free anti-virus in the past. With good reason - they were crap. I still see people with AVG and their machines are infected and they have that incredulous look on their face “but I have AVG, how can I be infected?”. Microsoft has a good reason to make a good anti-virus - Windows keeps getting infected. People are moving away from Windows because they are sick of it. So if Microsoft can fix the problem, maybe they can stem the tide. I think they are doing a very good job.

On the slightly down side, it isn’t centrally managed so if you have a network of a dozen or so computers, there is no way to download the updates once and share them around. There is no central reporting so your IT people can’t see which machines are getting attacked. I’m not sure it will work in a corporate setting, you might be stuck with Kaspersky or Trend.

Given that the threat has shifted away from old fashioned viruses to newer web based exploits, MSE will protect you as well as anything. It seems to find malware, spyware and quite a few of the other bad things. It isn’t perfect (nothing is) but I’m giving it the thumbs up.

Click here to get it FREE (this link takes you to the Microsoft web site)

On Podcasting

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 13:59:08 +1100

One great thing about so called "new media" ( "new media" means Internet and "old media" means newspaper, magazines, TV and radio) is that everyone can have a voice if they want. You don't have to be a billionaire and buy a printing press or a TV station. Comments on web sites have replaced letters to the editor. For the next step you can have a blog and if you want to be on TV or radio then there is podcasting.

But how do we go about podcasting and why would we? This article deals with the "why" and the "what". The next one will be the "how".

If you have something interesting to say, chances are you can attract an audience. There are so many good new media content creators out there but there is always room for more. The Internet is a great leveller, if you do it properly you can be just as big as Rupert Murdoch. In fact since many old media companies are making such a hash of new media (Rupert Murdoch thinks people will pay to read the newspaper online!) that means the opportunities are bigger for the newcomers.

Content is king. You need good content. I once asked new media zealot Amber MacArthur what I should do to make my blog more popular and she said simply "Start posting heaps of good content". Build good content and the audience will come.

There's a saying that you should throw out your first 10 episodes. They reckon you don't "find your voice" until you've done a few. Certainly my first 10 episodes are more about "I need to get something out, what do I have?" than any real direction. You need consistency with podcasting. Your audience want to know what they will get. You can't just mix up a bunch of interesting stuff and bung it out. Stay on topic. Merlin Mann and John Gruber said it best - topic times passion equals success.

Quality is important. The better the audio and video quality, the better your audience will appreciate you.

Finding your voice is very important. If you can focus on something very specialised and be an expert on it, you will have a better chance than if you generalise. Know who your audience is. Picture your ideal listener and always aim the podcast at them. This will help you stay on track. It isn't good to produce material aimed at varying levels of expertise. You need to keep your aim in the same direction at all times.

So if you are passionate about something, dedicated and want to share your ideas with the world, give podcasting a go.

Geek Passion

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 15:53:16 +1100

I was listening to FLOSS Weekly (#95 13/11/09) and the discussion turned to how do geeks inform the wider community about computer related topics.

These guys were very concerned about our rights online and some of the absolutely appalling laws proposed for many countries including the Internet filter for Australia.

But the problem becomes that when geeks start to explain these issues (to a non-geek audience) we get passionate and are perceived as tin-foil hats screaming about black helicopters and our message is lost. This is what I call "Geek Passion".

It seems that in allowing our passion to show, we risk degrading our message significantly. The art therefore is in simplifying the message (for a non-technical audience) and delivering it in a way that is taken seriously.

Netbooks

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 15:00:36 +1100

It’s probably time I critiqued this class of device. I’ve been avoiding them but finally succumbed and bought one so I can now speak from personal experience.

The term “net book” refers to this new, small laptop. Usually about 9 or 10 inch screen and the whole thing is so tiny. Mine fits in my shoulder bag. They are also priced well under the thousand dollar mark so they have become very popular.

Model choices in this category are the Asus eePC, Dell Mini 9, HP 1100 and the Acer One. They run in at $400-$800. Often bundled with 3G Internet access further reducing the price if you lock in for 2 years with a mobile data contract. In other words they will “give you” the computer if you agree to $60 per month for 2 years ($1440.00). If you do this, watch out which carrier you get as Vodafone and Optus don’t have the same coverage in Tassie as Tel$tra.

For once I went totally against my own advice (and better judgment) and bought an Acer. Yep, the dreaded Acer. My buying decision was driven totally on price - $380 from Coles, yes that’s right, I bought the computer at a supermarket. I hear you can get similar deals on Catch of The Day. I hate Acer, I think their stuff is crap but at that price with 1 year warranty I figure I can’t go far wrong.

As you might know, I work on Dell, HP (and just about every other brand you can name) at work. I’ve reloaded Windows on so many Dell and HP netbooks that I have lost count. And let me say netbooks are ok but horribly slow. This is what you need to understand about the netbook class of computer, they are build using a chip called “Atom” which is bloody slow. They have just a tad more power than a typical mobile phone.

So we need to have a little think about what we want to do with this tiny, slow computer. If you are thinking you can replace your laptop (or desktop) forget it. Netbooks don’t have enough grunt to do everything. Even Excel will severely tax one. Word might be ok if you type slowly and don’t include graphs, pictures or anything else fancy.

Netbooks are designed for mobility. So they are great for email and a bit of basic web surfing. Don’t expect to play DVD movies as they don’t have a DVD drive. You might just get a ripped (copied to hard drive) movie to play but I suspect the experience won’t be fun.

So what the Photon am I doing with one? Well I need to connect to Cisco routers to program them. And a netbook makes a fine terminal. Being small and giving a couple of hours running on battery they are perfect for confined spaces in data centres and racks where I have to go.

One of my team uses his netbook for testing and servicing large format printers. The netbook is a perfect fit and balances nicely on top of the printer while he does the tedious alignment process.

Back in the non-IT world you might want one for typing or email, web surfing or other really basic writing tasks.

Some netbooks come with a solid state disk (SSD) rather than traditional spinning hard drive. The theory is that SSD is faster so it can help make up for the slow netbook, it can’t from what I have seen. Also the SSD is so much more expensive so you will get less storage space. For example 16Gb or 64Gb SSD are common and cost more than 160Gb hard drive. Yes the battery life is better with SSD, but not much.

So, opinion? Maybe. Mine is fine for what I do with it. And I suppose that’s the point. If really small and portable is what you need then netbooks are the go. But if you need any actual computing done, they are going to fall short.

Factor in buying an external USB DVD drive ($120). Like I said the netbook has no DVD/CD drive. If you have to reload Windows or you want to install Office or anything else that comes on a CD, you will need one. There are some things you just can’t get as a download or on a USB thumb drive, you’re going to need a DVD drive one day.

Talking of software, please, please, please don’t put a full anti-virus on a netbook. Load Norton or Trend or AVG or any of those and you will see your new toy stop dead. They just don’t have the grunt to do anti-virus and anything else. I opted for the free Microsoft Security Essentials and that works. If you have to load Office, consider just installing Word and maybe Outlook. Excel, Access and Powerpoint are going to be disappointing. Pack light. Less is more with a netbook.

Speaking of software, I suggest Windows XP Home for a netbook rather than the heavier (and less loved) Vista. I haven’t tried Windows 7 on one but I suspect the Basic version might be ok if you really have to.

Connectivity wise, netbooks typically support ethernet, wireless (WiFi), 3G (Next G), Bluetooth, USB and many have web cams and card readers so you can save your camera photos onto them. You can network these suckers to just about anything.

Am I happy with mine? Yes. Does the job and I expect no more.

Why online backup sucks

Sat, 6 Feb 2010 08:08:11 +1100

There are plenty of Internet backup solutions; Carbonite, Jungle Disk and lots of local ISP's offering backup to the Internet for a low fee. On the face of it they are a good alternative, they get your data off site, encrypted and safe. But they suck.

The problem with Australian Internet is that we pay for download. If you are with Telstra, you pay for upload too. So backing up to the Internet costs download allowance that we just don't have. One backup session could use up your whole monthly allowance.

Some of the local offerings have "peering relationships" with your local ISP. So you MAY be able to get free traffic between you and your backup. Or you may not. You need to check. For example the BigPond "online storage" plans are in the free zone so no usage charges apply, but the cost of the storage is outrageous! It starts at $2.50 per month for 100Mb. You can't buy a USB stick that small anymore, that is a tiny amount of data.

Then you need to look at what amount of data needs to get backed up and figure out how long that will take to transfer. If you have a large database or other business data, it might take too long to upload. If your backup would take 16 hours to transfer, you won't get that to happen between 6pm and 8am the next morning.

Then there's the problem of entrusting your data to "the cloud". You need to make sure it is encrypted before it leaves your computer and that the backup provider can't get into your data. And that data is likely to be in another country and that may be an issue too.

Look, I think the whole idea is basically a good one. I just don't think it's ready for general use yet. Maybe once the NBN is up and running. There are too many problems/questions. It might work well for home users, but for business, basically - avoid.

Bluetooth earpieces

Fri, 5 Feb 2010 07:04:09 +1100

With the Tasmanian penalty for driving while using a mobile phone now $300 and 3 demerit points, now is the time to overcome your fear of looking like a complete tosser and get some sort of hands free option.

Yes, a flashing blue light in your ear makes you look like a dork. But a $500 car kit just doesn’t work for me. Especially in a company car if the company is not paying for it.

There are visor mounted bluetooth kits but they don’t work for me either. Enter the earpiece.

I’ve tried many over the years with limited success. The old Nokia one I had 10 years ago was ok but the battery lasted only long enough to make 3 or 4 calls and it was pretty big with a long microphone stalk. Way too dorky.

I got a BlueAnt Z9 last year but I was very disappointed with it. It takes a long time to turn on and you can’t power it on if the phone is ringing or you are already on a call. So if it wasn’t powered on before the call, it is useless. And it cost $99.

Yesterday on a whim, I looked in Harvey Norman and saw the Jabra for $30. A bargain. So I bought one and it works perfectly. Bargain.

Dodo wireless broadband

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 11:07:20 +1100

In the quest for broadband I discovered Dodo wireless broadband for sale from Dick Smith Electronics. Neither Dodo nor DSE deserve my business but here’s my review.

This is a product you really have to work very hard to actually buy. We all know my opinion of Telstra and Dodo makes Telstra look good! I had to visit 3 DSE stores and just about beg to buy one despite it being advertised in their catalogue inserted in the local paper. I was told they don’t work here, we don’t sell them and sent from one store to the next with the promise that the other store really did have them in stock, which they didn’t.

I called Dodo and the first guy said yes no problem and offered to post one to me if Harvey Norman didn’t have them (which they didn’t). The next guy said no and the web site said it wasn’t available in Tasmania despite their map showing it was. I got a screaming Indian woman who didn’t speak a lot of English and the whole experience was really bad.

A lesser man would have given up.

That said, the ad looks inviting. $129 for the USB wireless stick and their pre-paid recharges last up to one year. In contrast, the Telstra so called pre-paid lasts one month so Telstra’s is really just a pre-paid monthly contract at twice the price.

You can buy this product on a monthly plan. Do not do this. The plans are half the price of Telstra but I would not recommend committing to Dodo for anything. 24 months? No way. Pre-paid is safer.

Dodo asked for my mobile number (during the online registration process) so they can SMS me about the recharge level. I foolishly agreed. Now I get SMS spam. I strongly suspect they sold my number to some marketeers. Of course I have no proof but I never got SMS spam before.

Dodo offers recharges from $10 and up to 15Gb of download for $139, bloody good value in wireless. It comes with a choice of 250Mb per month free bonus, 5Gb in the first month free bonus or 100 free hours. Buying Internet by the hour sucks, never do this. The “5Gb in the first month” lets you test it out without buying a recharge first. Pick that option.

The device runs on the Optus 3G network. So you’re going to get patchy coverage compared to Telstra. The Optus maps show all of Hobart and surrounds as “covered”. I expect (but have no proof) that this device does not work north of Brighton. Next Launceston trip, I’ll test it out.

I am not impressed with the fine print on the map that says it may contain “planned coverage”. This means that if they think they might one day cover an area, they mark it as “covered” now. So the map is not very accurate.

The device is a USB stick that works with Windows and Mac. Out of the box it did NOT work with 3 different Macs. Given the immediate crash, I suspect it does NOT work on Snow Leopard. See article to follow on how to entice it to work with a Mac, even under Snow Leopard. It is possible, just very, very messy.

So the big question...Does it work? Well sort of. I got 4 out of 5 bars reception in my office in the centre of Hobart. Despite my home being on the map, no signal at all. I actually bought this one for my Mum and it didn’t work on her kitchen table but did work in the craft room where her laptop is located. (She’s in Taroona)

Speeds - not brilliant by any stretch of the imagination. I got about 400k in the office and 500k at Mum’s. Nowhere near the 1200-1500k I get from my Telstra stick which works just about everywhere.

So the Dodo stick gets a very cautious maybe. Make sure you buy it locally and get the promise of a full refund if it doesn’t work for you, which IS a possibility. Understand that you will get next to zero customer service from Dodo and the trade off is that it is cheap. If you need assistance at all, go elsewhere. If you know what you are doing, give it a go.

Summary - pay $129 to DSE and take the device home. Plug it in to a Windows computer and follow instructions to register it and install the software. Select the “5Gb in the first month free” option as your bonus. Test it thoroughly for a month. If it doesn’t work for you - take it back to Dick Smith for a refund within 7 days of purchase. If it does work, when your first month is up, pay Dodo $139 (over the phone using credit card, automated system) for 15Gb recharge that expires in 365 days if you don’t chew through it first.

Benefits? It’s portable. It may work in places you cant get ADSL. Cheaper than ADSL if you use very limited Internet. For example, my Mum is on the cheapest ADSL plan with Netspace at $30 per month = $360 per year. Dodo stick $129 + $139 = $268 in the first year (and $139 in subsequent years) if she stays under 15Gb, which she probably will. And it’s around 500k whereas the cheapest ADSL is only 256k.

Readability

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 08:13:44 +1100

This is flamin’ awesome. Do you ever get distracted by all the extra crap on a web site? Ads, pop-ups, sidebars, etc etc? I notice junk more on pages like newspaper sites and blogs I want to actually read.

Readability to the rescue. Free. Works with multiple browsers, Windows or Mac. Just visit their web site, select the style you want to read in and drag the Readability icon to your browser’s bookmark bar.

Then when a page is “too busy” or full of crap, just hit the Readability icon and Bingo! See the before and after shots above.

Thanks to Don McAllister from Screen Casts Online for that tip. Check out his excellent series of Mac tutorials.

And for bonus points you Mac users can add “Click to Flash” which is a free plug-in for Safari that removes Flash content from web sites. Also allows easy YouTube video downloads. But that’s another story.

Review: Apple Magic Mouse

Sun, 6 Dec 2009 17:54:36 +1100

I think it’s time I confess that I am some what of an Apple fan-boy. A recent convert maybe but fan-boy none the less. That said, Apple does NOT have the best reputation in the mouse stakes.

So the new “Magic Mouse” was greeted with scepticism and doubt. Many other fan-boys just ignored this new offering completely. It’s my turn to review it.

Firstly, if you have a Windows PC or you mostly run Windows on your Mac, forget this mouse. The Windows support is basic to say the least. For Mac, you will need the latest updates. Yes, for once you actually have to install software to make this mouse work. Shock horror!

What’s magic about it? Well it supports multi-touch on the mouse. You stroke it to scroll, you swipe two fingers across it to flick. Most of the gestures from the new track pads translate to this new mouse. There are no buttons as such, although you still click, right-click and double click the same, the whole top of the mouse clicks.

It’s small. I used to use a Microsoft Laser Bluetooth mouse. And the Magic Mouse is less than half the size. That took me a week to get used to.

It’s Bluetooth wireless. This is good as you don’t waste a USB port with a wireless dongle and there’s no trailing USB cable.

Battery life seems very good to me. I’ve read posts online about poor battery life, but I am yet to wear out the original batteries that came with it. They are showing 63% remaining. After 4 weeks, that puts it way in front of the old Microsoft one that barely lasted 3 weeks, even on expensive alkaline batteries. I think the fact that the Magic Mouse can put itself to sleep and also be turned off (power switch on the bottom of the mouse) makes a difference. The only way to power down the Microsoft one was to pull the batteries out and I just gave up on that and left it on all the time.

Tracking is ok in my opinion. Again some bloggers have whinged about this, it isn’t a problem I’ve seen. Same with drop-outs. Mine doesn’t drop out.

The gestures are cool. You get so used to them you just forget until you use another mouse and wonder why it doesn’t work right.

Price is not so bad. $99. Cheaper than the Microsoft one that cost me $149, although I’m sure you can get another Bluetooth mouse for the same or less.

Compared to the older Mighty Mouse (now called the Apple Mouse because of a copyright problem on the old name) this is streets ahead. The Mighty Mouse was pathetic when you come to think of it. I bought one for my brother and we tossed it in favour of a $9 Dell USB mouse!!!

I do confess my prime motivation for buying the Magic Mouse was to eliminate another piece of Microsoft from my Mac. I’m doing everything I can to stick to my Microsoft diet.

Is the Magic Mouse perfect? No. Maybe it’s me adjusting, maybe it’s the mouse not quite ready for prime time. Am I sorry I bought it - no. Would I buy it again - yes. Do I think there’s a better mouse out there - yes I do.

Conclusion - ok, good to use, but not highly recommended.

RIP Chocolate

Thu, 3 Dec 2009 08:53:19 +1100

I know you shouldn't get too attached to pet chickens but Chocolate was a darn fine bird. A large Rode Island Red with bright eyes and shiny feathers.

Her time came yesterday, natural causes I think, she was under the trees behind the wood shed.

What the Photon is Woopra?

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 18:19:57 +1100

Taking in so many podcasts, blogs and other sorts of new media that I do, I confess I come across a lot of weird and wonderful gadgets. Most are pointless and fade quickly. Woopra is worth checking out if you have a web site.

Basically its like Google Analytics on steroids. Not only do you get web statistics about how many people visit your site, you get it in real time. Yep, there’s a program you download onto your PC that shows you as it happens, blow by blow. Watch people come and go on your web site.

But that’s not all. You get a map of the world and points pop up showing where all the visitors are from.

I know it sounds a bit Big Brother and all, but get over that. Every web site keeps statistics about visitors. If they didn’t the web sites would never improve and no one would know what people like and what they don’t like. It’s only when you store personal information (and use it for marketing) that it becomes evil in my mind. Woopra is not about that. 
Super cool. If you have a web site, give it a try. The free version does heaps and gives a very good idea what you can do with it. For full on commercial use, there a paid version at low cost.

www.woopra.com

Easy to use and install.

How safe is Internet Banking?

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:07:20 +1100

update: 7/12/09
NSW Detective Inspector Bruce van der Graaf from the Computer Crime Investigation Unit was reported in CRN November 2009 as saying at a public hearing into cyber crime “He uses 2 rules to protect himself from cyber criminals when banking online. The first rule, never click on hyperlinks to the banking site and the second was to avoid Microsoft Windows.”

When I’m speaking at the REIT I am often asked how safe Internet banking really is.

Here’s the short answer - not very safe at all. And now for the long answer. A number of serious articles published in the past few weeks about security online. Here are the summaries;

Respected Windows security expert Brian Krebs writing for the Washington Post says you should not use Windows for your Internet banking.

Steve Gibson points out several attacks that can compromise your security, even if you use SSL (secure web traffic).

Proof of concept demonstrating how “man in the middle” attacks can be used to intercept web traffic.

Black Hat conference hears from hacker explaining how SSL certificates can be faked and how your web browser won’t know the fake from the real thing!

Numerous vulnerabilities in Microsoft Internet Explorer allow hackers to install trojans to monitor your Internet surfing, including online banking.

Ok, so all of that adds up to - Internet banking is not safe. If you are using a Windows computer and especially if you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer - you are at grave risk. If someone wants your banking account, they CAN get it.

What do you do about it? Try these suggestions.

This isn’t something every kid can do, but it is easy enough for organised crime. And they are the ones to be scared of. They make a very nice living out of theft. Yes, they do exist, yes this is happening.

This is very real.

Anti Virus

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 08:16:19 +1100

Another from the series “Updated Windows Security”. If you haven’t read that first article, start by clicking here.

This article got a bit wordy so you can skip down to the blue bit if you just want the answers.

As I have said many times, you absolutely must have anti-virus for Windows. It is essential.

There are around a hundred thousand different viruses out there and more very day. The bad guys are actively working to make new ones and infect computers. It is a really big business.

Do not think that just buying some anti-virus software (AV) is the be-all and end-all solution to this problem. It is not. AV is one part of the equation, not the entire solution.

Ask 6 IT guys what is the best AV and you will get 12 different answers. And it is a moving target. What was good last year is crap this year.

AV is embarrassingly simple. Given a few hours programming experience just about anyone could write a good program. Fundamentally, all they do is check every file on your computer against a list of known viruses. If it’s on the list, it’s bad.

The strength of good AV is in the list it is using. The better the list, the better the program. Now for all the geeks who didn’t read my disclaimer, yes I know there is more to it than that, but we’re trying to boil it down for our non-technical friends here. If you want more meat, go read Wikipedia or Security Now.

Because AV is so simple, all the companies selling it are out to do better than their competitors by adding heaps of extra features. The result is that most commercial products are so bloated with garbage that your computer will slow to a crawl as soon as you install one of these AV systems. Avoid so called Internet Security bundles and get basic anti-virus.

Very recently Microsoft threw their hat in the ring and released Microsoft Security Essentials, a free product that protects and cleans viruses. Many IT geeks are excited about this and it looks like Microsoft might have a winner here.

A lot of people object to paying good money to protect their computers. It does seem like some sort of racket, a con, a money spinner at our expense. Typically the paid for commercial AV was always better then the free give aways. I know a lot of people like AVG anti-virus for example. My feeling is they like it because it is free. I’ve always found it ineffective. At least Microsoft has a good incentive to make a free and effective AV system - someone has to fix this virus problem or all the customers will jump ship and get Macs!

So current recommendations? Well Kaspersky seems ok, and the Microsoft one sounds good. I’ve gone off Trend and I still don’t like Norton. Despite Symantec claiming the new Norton doesn’t slow your computer down, I still find it to be crap. NOD32 gets good reviews but I haven’t had time to test it personally.

Absolutely AVOID and run away screaming from any anti-virus product offered as a pop-up message. Say you are on the Internet and you get a message that your machine has been infected and just click here to fix it - free or whatever. NO FREAKING WAY, you are about to be infected with a phoney product. Anti-virus 2010, anti-virus XP, PC anti-spyware, anti-malware and hundreds of other “free” products are FAKES.

Pull the plug on your modem and reboot the machine. Run a real AV scanner and see if it was too late. If you were using Internet Explorer when you got that pop-up, it’s probably game over for you I am sorry.

And this is my final point about AV. It’s there to tell you that you ARE (or have been) infected. You can’t scan or check a file on your computer until it is on your computer. So it could be too late by then.

Most modern viruses work by exploiting flaws in Windows to stick their virus onto your machine. The anti-virus doesn’t stop this, it just detects the virus once you try to open it. Again, that could be too late. Smart viruses work in stealth mode making them invisible to Windows. This can make them invisible to anti-virus programs too. They can’t scan what they can’t see.

What you can expect from good AV is that you won’t get infected by something too embarrassing. You won’t die from Bubonic Plague, Tetanus, Typhoid or Small Pox. They’ll keep you safe from the preventable things. But they offer no real world protection from a slew of newer nastiness. They may possibly help you clean up after you get something.

Like I said, AV is not the single answer. It is a vital part of the whole solution.

Snow Leopard

Sat, 3 Oct 2009 15:23:56 +1000

In a few days Windows 7 will be released and Microsoft will go into over-hype. Considering how awful and crap Vista was (and isn’t it good to say “Vista” in the past tense?) Windows 7 will be better. I suggest you wait. Microsoft doesn’t have a good record with new software releases. It takes them a while to get the bugs out.

During the meanwhilst Apple quietly snuck out Snow Leopard (OS X 1.6). When I say “quietly” it wasn’t so quiet in the Mac community. But there was no massive public launch and Apple didn’t ask people to host parties in their homes to celebrate.

Snow Leopard is a bit of a different cat. Rather than major changes, new features and lots of new everything, Apple has kept virtually all the changes “under the hood” as they like to say.

Snow Leopard is getting us ready for 64 bit computing. It looks like its predecessor (OS X 10.5 Leopard) and you wont notice too many things at first glance.

It does seem slightly faster, certainly uses less disk space and doesn’t seem to break anything too badly. In short it passes the Apple test for an “UPgrade” - it makes things better not worse.

There are minor squabbles over whether this should be called a new version or just a service pack. Leo Laporte and David Pogue aren’t talking anymore. (It seems to me)

This is one of those upgrades you will want because Apple told you so. You need to get up to date when you can as they will be leveraging this new version to do great stuff. Soon software developers will take advantage of the new architecture and we will see some incredible stuff I am sure.

So when you get a moment, go do the upgrade. It’s cheap (and didn’t that hurt Microsoft, they charge more for Windows 7 and the prime reason to get that is to fix their mistakes in Vista!) and easy.

The upgrade takes about an hour to install, you only need hang around for the first few minutes though. Then let it crank and come back later.

It is worth doing your house cleaning first. Update all your applications to the latest versions and check the wiki for compatibility for anything you simply can’t live without, just in case there are known problems. But anything reasonably current should work fine.

I did need to manually update the Sierra Watcher for my Telstra Next G data card. That was the only thing that had an issue for me. Microsoft Office, Perian, Flip4Mac, Mac The Ripper, Handbrake and Toast were all fine.

Oh, and there’s only two versions - Snow Leopard and Snow Leopard Server (which is for X Serve - not for Macs), unlike Windows. Although you do get the option of buying a Family Pack if you have more than one Mac and want a discount on multiple copies.

You must have an Intel Mac. It won’t run on Power PC Macs.

In short - yes please but no immediate hurry.

Firewall ON

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 18:29:09 +1000

Another in the series - Updated Windows Security

From Service Pack 2 onwards, Windows XP has had a firewall. If you have an older copy of XP you really should have done the free upgrade to SP3. I don’t think an older Windows XP would last long on the Internet, it would get infected pretty quickly.

But what is the firewall and how do you check it is on?

If you do a right click on “My Network Places” and go to properties, you will see all the network connections on your machine. The wireless and wired “local area connections”. Each one should have the padlock icon indicating it is protected.

To turn the firewall on, right click your connection, properties, advanced and there is the firewall settings button. Easy.

What does it do? Well, it stops uninvited external connections. In other words, Network stuff can’t connect to you but you can still connect to it.

Why? Well if you have the firewall off, any virus on any machine on the same network can infect you. So all the other computers on your work, home or wireless networks could be trying to infect you. This is bad. If you use public wireless (like at a conference, cafe etc) this is really bad.

There is no need to buy any firewall products. It is built in to Windows. Yes it isn’t the greatest firewall ever but it works nicely for most people. The only time you might consider an upgrade is if you use services that need to publish to the Internet such as web servers, ftp servers, or maybe gaming or voice servers. If you need this type of thing, you probably are not reading my blog, you’re probably an IT expert. The rest of us don’t need more than Windows provides.